Agenda - 06-13-2006-10b - Laserfiche WebLink

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Adopted by IPWG 2/22/06 Composite Countywide Plan For Parks and Trails (Town of Carrboro, Town of Chapel I-Iill, Town of Hillsborough, City of Mebane, O~ tinge County) I. Introduction /Rationale Park and open space planning for the municipal and County governments within the 400-square mile area of Orange County has been ongoing for a number of years, but the last decade has seen renewed emphasis an park services, In some ways, the existence of Duke Forest and the Eno River State Park met some of the needs for area residents for hiking and picnicking over the past 30- 50 years, but with the growth of population and the need for facilities for active and low-impact recreation, new parks were a service greatly desired by County and Town residents, As is the case in most states, town governments were first to venture into the provision of local parks, with Chapel Hill opening Umstead Park in the 1960's and Cedar Falls Park in the 1970's. Carrboro constructed and opened Wilson Park in 1977. Mebane constructed Lake Michael, on the Orange County side of Mebane, in 1953, and in 1981 opened a 200-acre park at the lake, Orange County came to the provision of parks somewhat later, with some facilities at Fairview constructed in the early 1980's. In 1988, Orange County adopted a Parks Plan, but it would be 11 years before Efland-Cheeks Park would open in 1999. Hillsborough does not currently have a parks system, but is on the verge of creating one with the planned opening of the RiverWalk and other parks in the next few years. The period of the late 1990's was, in many ways, a turning point for parks in the areas of park planning, land acquisition and construction. A series of reports on the coordination of park planning and the status of recreation programs and facilities led to the .loint Master Recreation and Parks Work Group report, completed in 1999, One of the recommendations of that report was the formation of an Intergovernmental Parks (IP) Work Group to serve as a vehicle for communication and collaboration between the jurisdictions. Town and County bond issues paved the way for new park construction in many of the jurisdictions, II. Coordination The purpose of this document and maps is to provide for the five jurisdictions a single source that can be used by policy makers, staffs and other interested groups to review all of the different parks and park plans at the same time.